HIMSS: Bridging the gap between IT, clinical engineering; 20% merged now

Teammates: Biomedical equipment technician Mike Heitz (left) and computing analyst Mike Dinkins combine forces to keep systems humming at Norton Brownsboro Hospital in Louisville, Ky. Source: Norton Healthcare

LAS VEGAS—To achieve the overarching concept of “system-ness or enterprise-ness,” converging the IT and the clinical engineering (CE) departments could help to eliminate latency or downtime with medical devices that now are integrated into the EMR and the greater network, according to Vi Shaffer, research vice president at Gartner, who took part in a conversation about this convergence Feb. 20 at the 2012 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference.

“While medical informatics is well accepted in the post-EMR provider environment, one of the most exciting new areas is the combined energy of CE and IT, as we’re only at the beginning,” said Shaffer. “For the past 15 to 17 years, the main focus has been on a movement toward the EHR, causing an engagement between IT and the physicians. As an end goal, this is now necessary, but not sufficient.

“Now, the fusion of the competencies of clinical engineering and IT, along with the process management, personnel management and critical thinking skills, can come together in the settings of the hospital network, the ambulatory setting, the ER and the explosion of telemedicine—the latter of which can help deliver new models of care delivery outside of the physical constraints of healthcare delivery.”

Statistically, in medium to large hospitals and health systems in the U.S., CE currently falls within the IT department about 20 percent of the time.

Prior to the U.S. recession, it was indicated that IT would completely take over CE, according to Shaffer, because it is a “natural and necessary converge.” However, the IT departments held back from that move because meaningful use distracted them from being able to focus on and fully understand the CE department, which Shaffer used as a cautionary tale.

“If you don’t understand the people and the process of the CE department, then you are not ready to converge,” she said.

However, “it is clear that the planning, opportunity, information, synergies, technical support of physicians need to come together to have collaborative environments and to learn together about technologies,” Shaffer said.

“For the next decade, CE and IT will be naturally thrown together because the healthcare community is going to be walking a tightrope between the things that need to be accomplished to advance usability of the EHR and other clinical systems, and the things that need to be accomplished to reduce impact of those same technologies in an organization.”

In her conclusion, she predicted that a new healthcare professional will need to represent the patient, as more and more information and technologies are directed to the patient, both in the hospital and outside the hospital setting, and thus, the role of the patient informaticist may emerge out of this convergence of IT and CE.

To encourage this convergence, the Clinical Engineering & IT Community, which is jointly sponsored by HIMSS, the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) and the American College of Clinical Engineering (ACCE), are hosting a series of town hall meetings in 2012.